Story Up On Hartford Ridge

Kathy in FL

Administrator
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Chapter 111

“Please don’t cry.”

“I know I shouldn’t,” I said. “If Burt sees me …”

“Maybe that boy needs to. I swun. I know he is trying to help but he’s going to give us both a heart attack at this rate. You’re just tired. We both are. At least Donnelly said he saw both our husbands and they were okay.”

“Donnelly’s words were they were mad as wet hens when they found out they were being put on another work rotation with no break to go home first.”

“You thinking what I’m thinking?”

“If you’re thinking that it was done on purpose for some reason then yes, we’re thinking the same thing.”

She sighed and we both sat down in the Canning Kitchen to take advantage of the warmth of the stove. Just like it had been unseasonably hot, it was now turning unseasonably cold early.

Barbara said, “Tell me what makes you think such a thing then we’ll compare notes.”

“Well I’ve started wondering why we get such extra special attention from the Chief Inspector. I thought it was like that for everyone, or most everyone. I put Tommy’s surprise at how often the man is out here down to just Tommy being Tommy. Er … you do know that …”

“Oh for … Kay-Lee there’s not a bone in your body that would be set against Tommy or Linda. Stop worrying it to pieces. I thought we’d gotten beyond that.”

I sighed. “Old habit. Bad habit. Need to break that habit.”

“You had to hide in plain sight for a long time.”

“Maybe so but it is time for a new way of doing things. The old way might be at least a good part of why I got us into the pickle with the family.”

Barbara said a rude word that surprise me enough my mouth fell open. “Oh don’t look at me like that. If anyone should understand action and consequences it is me. You didn’t get you or anyone else in a pickle with the family. The family made the pickle and some are just still looking for an excuse not to have to take responsibility for it. Let’s just move on. I know you are going back out shortly.”

I was and we both knew it. Also knew there wasn’t much choice. “The Chief Inspector is running some kind of game. I’m not sure who’s side he is on but I’m fairly certain that he isn’t above being on his own side. The fact that our men are gone so often only gives him more scope to play with.”

Barbara nodded. “I’m thinking similar. He plays at being magnanimous and all that, but there’s the gleaning rows issue … and I’m thinking he is taking what should be ours and turning a profit for himself or using it as a bribe or something. You think he has anything to do with the hobgoblins?”

“On that I am nearly positive it is a no.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m pretty sure some of them watch me while I’m out creeping around at night.”

“What?!”

“Don’t shout please. I wasn’t positive until night before last.”

She muttered, “Oh Lord, I’m going to be sorry for asking.”

“Relax. If nothing else maybe I made … not friends but certainly I think they understand now that we aren’t the enemy. As in us in this house aren’t. And some of the cousins but … I’m not speaking to that and I’m going to try and stay out of it. I want you to stay out of it too. And I may duct tape Burt down in the basement for the duration.”

“Oh I’m not going to waste the tape I’ll just plant him down there.”

I didn’t disagree with Barbara but tried not to get off track. “It was the night I brought back that big bag of hen of the woods mushrooms.”

“Uh huh,” she said suspiciously. “I wonder why you came back so quick and Donnelly showing up not long afterwards with you looking like you wanted to throw something at him.”

“You aren’t far off the mark. He refused to say what he knew about our men until we were both together.”

“Next time you hold him and I’ll take aim with the rolling pin.”

I chuckled but I also admitted that Barbara probably wasn’t completely joking. She can be as fierce an ally as she was once a troublemaker for me. “It didn’t take me long to fill the tote sack and I was about to put it down and rake up some acorns to bring back when Donnelly nearly caused me to wet myself suddenly popping up out of a stand of azalea bushes like he did.”

“Shhhh. You’ll scare it away.”

I was ready to take aim with the rake handle when he pointed up and I saw the mangiest looking ‘coon I’d seen in a while. But it was also big and fat which made me realize he must be on a hunt. I winced thinking of how far the sound of a gun was going to go when instead he draw back a bow and shot the ‘coon with an arrow. It fell at my feet and Donnelly just looked at me.

“If you think I’m going to field dress that nasty ol’ thing you can think again.”

“Good. I won’t have to share him then,” he said caught between being serious and trying to make a joke. “Heard from Sawyer and Huely.”

I stopped dead and can’t even remember what I was going to do next. “What?! When?! How are they?! Don’t just stand there like a statue!”

“Too hard to tell it twice. I’ll come to the house as soon as I take this to Cutter.”


~ ~ ~ ~ ~
“Oh I would have killed him so dead.”

“Trust me, I was giving it serious consideration but he took off too fast for me to catch him.”

“Where does the hobgoblin come into the story.”

“I’d no sooner decided to let Donnelly live than I heard someone retching in the bushes. I thought it was another one of the boys but to shorten the story when I located where the sound was coming from I found a man and a boy a little older than Burt. The boy was in distress.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“Son, what’s wrong?!”

It took me a while to figure out what I was seeing because I swear it looked like a couple of real hobgoblins or trolls or something if you want to know the truth. They were wearing some kind of camouflage get up, all covered in grasses and moss. I looked it up and it is called a ghillie suit and it is just about the craziest get up you ever want to see. Scared me worse than Donnelly did.

The smaller of the two “trolls” was retching so hard he could barely breathe. The larger “troll” turned out to really be his father and was in a borderline panic. That’s when I see in the moonlight that the boy’s hand was stained with something. When I realized what it was.

“How many did you eat?” I asked, trying to get an answer from the boy.

The “troll” that I now realized was a man tried to hold the boy up and bring his rifle up at the same time.

“Stop it. I think he ate some poke berries. We need to make him puke all of them up. Now.”

Turns out the boys had only eaten two before getting nauseous and then starting to throw up. You know I keep that first aid kit with me and it had some ipecac in it. Well when the boy stopped throwing up on his own I got him going again with that stuff. It didn’t take much and he was off and puking again and by the time he stopped his stomach was about as empty as we were going to make it with what we had.

“Don’t say anything,” I told the man. “We both know I don’t want to get involved. Just get him back to … to wherever and keep an eye on him. Those were pokeberries.”

“I thought they were grapes,” the boy muttered.

You could probably hear my eyes roll in my head I was so angry. “Don’t you ever … EVER … eat something without an adult’s say so again. And certainly don’t eat something out in the wilds that you don’t know for absolutely sure what you are handling. Poke berries are deadly poisonous. Just ten of them can take out an adult. You see what just two did to you. Don’t you ever scare your dad like that again or I’ll hunt you down and paddle your behind myself. You got that mister?”

The boy looked at me like I was way crazier than even the family thinks I am. The man popped him lightly in the head as a signal to watch his p’s and q’s. To me he opened his mouth to say something but closed it and then nodded.

I said, “I’m not sure what to tell you except to keep an eye on him. Maybe change out of your … er … clothes and take him to a doctor if he seems to be in distress. I … I honestly just don’t know. And no, don’t say anything. What I don’t know can’t hurt either one of us.”


~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“And you just walked off? Just like that?!” Barbara asked, nearly scandalized. "And you didn't say anything to me?!"

“Yeah. I needed to get back here before Donnelly. He was going to tell us about Sawyer and Huely. That was more important.”
 

Kathy in FL

Administrator
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I will try and get up some tonight. Not sure though. We are going to have a three hour drive back from the BOL and my daughter’s bridal shower is in the morning and after that Mom and I are going to try and go dress shopping. Try being the operative word. So as much as I’d love to promise … you get the picture.
 

Kathy in FL

Administrator
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Life happens, when is the wedding? Take care and good luck dress shopping!

The day before Easter. None of us realized it until too late. At least I can say that my soon-to-be son-in-law officially passed his defense of his doctoral thesis/dissertation (can’t remember which it was) and is officially a doktah. Medical Engineering. Gives me a headache. One of his fun “projects” he was involved in was to help a team to start the process of micro sizing an MRI machine so it can be hauled around in the field rather than have people have to go into the hospital to use one. Makes my brain hurt just thinking about it.
 

Jeepcats27

Senior Member
Once upon a time, the hospital I worked at had a traveling MRI in a tractor trailer truck
that they leased with 4 other hospitals. Its schedule was portioned out between the hospitals. If someone needed an emergency MRI, and it wasn't at their hospital, they would transport the patient to where it actually was. Then the hospitals grew and installed their own MRIs. However, according to staff, it would need a lot of Maintenance and they still had to do emergency transfers. It was actually more cost effective with the tractor trailer truck depending on who you asked. A smaller version would be even better! Just think of the gas they could save!
 

Griz3752

Retired, practising Curmudgeon
I will try and get up some tonight. Not sure though. We are going to have a three hour drive back from the BOL and my daughter’s bridal shower is in the morning and after that Mom and I are going to try and go dress shopping. Try being the operative word. So as much as I’d love to promise … you get the picture.
I'm thinking the Bridal Shower takes precedence over almost anything Kathy. Hope all y'all have a great time; when's the wedding?
 
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Sammy55

Veteran Member
Wow! Just seeing this and doing the happy dance!!

Thanks, Kathy! And congrats on the upcoming wedding and the doktah in the family!

I've been taking your other books and re-reading them (for the 3rd, 4th, 5th times) and enjoying them all over again. But it's wonderful to get another chapter here. Not wonderful to have Clif hanging around again, though. Please have him come back and set the story to rights, and then have him go someplace else and rest his head...please. Thank you! LOL!
 

Kathy in FL

Administrator
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Chapter 112

I’ve been strong because I know that’s what I need to be. Sawyer would expect it. Well maybe that isn’t saying it quite right but maybe more that he needs me to be, or at least needs to think of me like that so that he can live the life he’s been forced into for now. Barbara, once an enemy like Uncle Mark, has now turned into a – dare I say it – a better friend than Linda. And Jeannie. I’m trying not to hold anything against them, I can certainly believe they never meant to hurt me but at the same time? They could have … should have … warned me what was going on behind our backs. Maybe Sawyer and I could have done something. What I don’t know because I don’t know who all participated in the tattle tales. But maybe we could have said something, done something. Maybe that would have meant no Inspectors and Harvesters. Even if it was just a delay, we would have had another month or two to prepare.

Oh who am I kidding? We aren’t the center of the universe, and this was bound to happen one way or the other. If they hadn’t used us as an excuse to come up here to get nosey, they would have used someone else. But it is still awful hard not to waste my energy being angry. It feels terrible to hold Sawyer’s family at arm’s length and if I’m honest in contempt. The note I sent to the Aunts was brief. I only said that I hoped Sawyer’s family was getting on. That we were doing the best we could under the circumstances. And that none of us had time to waste on anger that wasn’t going to change the past or accomplish anything now. I left Barbara to say anything more personal because I try not to make a habit of lying as it always comes back on you.

Barbara always has me read what she writes. I asked her why.

“Because. You may talk a good line, but you are still angry at them.”

“I don’t know if angry is the right word for it. Disappointed might be better. And even saying that might mean that I feel more than I do. I’ve just gotten to the point that … that a big part of me … I don’t know … so long as they don’t get in my … in our private business I’m not sure I’ve got the energy to care about it anymore. Maybe … maybe if Sawyer was around more. Maybe. I don’t know.”

“You don’t trust them,” she said sadly.

“If you are wondering if I trust you, you must know I do.”

She gave me a small grin. “I know. And even if I don’t say anything about it I hope you know that I value your trust and letting your read the letters is my way of saying I don’t want to violate that trust. I’ve been there. I know, even if you don’t say it, it hurts. And … and I’m really sorry you haven’t been able to fix things with Linda and Jeannie.”

I shrugged. “They are having to lead the lives set before them. I’m having to do the same thing. Maybe one of these days I can go back to considering them my … my sisters. Like we used to call it. Right now though, it doesn’t feel like it.”

Barbara gave me the benefit of her years my senior and what she’d already gone through. “It will probably come and go for a while. Part of me misses my sister, but I’m not sure I could trust her anymore, at least … not right now and not until we got through all the family mess. I don’t blame her for what happened to Huely … or me. I do blame her for just standing there and not saying anything. It’s changed things between us. I’m just not sure how much or for how long or if she even … cares about the damage her choosing to just stand there caused. And I’ve got my own things that make me not trust the Hartfords but … it isn’t at the family as a whole, ‘cause I’m a Hartford too. And so are you. But there are some of them that … that things have changed between us more than … more than I might be able to get over. But …” Then she grinned.

“But?”

She chuckled and the sound of it was as tired as I myself was feeling. “If what went wrong between the two of us for a while can get fixed and made into something like this? Don’t write off the rest of them. Something just as good may come of it. It’s just going to take time.”

Barbara is five years older than me. Not a great number but sometimes she’s almost … no she is … an older sister. Probably a bit like I’d unconsciously craved to have in the other wives who were all older than me. Some barely and some several years.

Compared to what Barbara and I have been together for the last several months? My friendship with Linda and Jeannie feels … superficial isn’t the word I’m looking for but it’s close. I don’t know. Like Barbara said, I’m tired. We both are. And most of the time I can be as strong as I need to be but hearing how bad off that Sawyer and Huely are being treated just tore something in me. Thank you God that Barbara is strong for real. I’ve needed a friend … a sister … like her. She’s probably as strong-willed as I am at the very least. At the same time, we seem to be able to make room for each other’s strengths and help with each other’s weaknesses. We both have them and I’d gotten to the end of my rope, and it was Barbara who was there and helped me tie a knot and hold on until we could weave some more rope.

I finally wiped my face and blew my nose. “Sorry.”

“For what? Not like you haven’t held me when I’ve been crying buckets.”

“Yours is hormones.”

“Pretty excuse for it.” She sighed and stared out the window beside the old wood stove. All she could see was the blackout curtain that I had sewn months ago but it didn’t seem to matter. “At least they are still on the same crew.”

I sniffed and tried to clear my sinuses that were still stuffy from my crying jag. “Donnelly made it seem like those in authority understand they daren’t separate them. They work too well together and refuse to work when apart.”

“I hope they are careful with that strategy,” Barbara said darkly. “I don’t want them to get separated, but I don’t want them to get in trouble either. Our husbands must be some of the most stubborn of the whole lot of Hartford men.”

“Well if they aren’t it isn’t for lack of trying.”

She gave a surprised laugh and it set the rocker to going and faster than it should have she was dozing. I know some of it is being pregnant but that’s not all of it. We’re tired. Bone tired. The cold that’s arrived doesn’t help. And it is going to get colder before it gets warmer. I’ve made a real room down in the basement for Burt and Jolene. It is too hard to cut wood and keep three wood stoves burning all night long. Mostly we all stay in the old kitchen though. I’m thinking of putting another little bed in here that Barbara and I can take turns on instead of sleeping in these rockers. We keep the lantern turned as low as it makes sense to turn it, but we still need light to keep an eye on the stove and we still have to take turns with the canners when we have them running. During the day, when it is warmer, we’ll sleep on the sofa in the front room or on the daybed we made on the back porch. Day bed might be what I move in here though. Getting too cold to sleep on the porch.

I’m going out shortly. Just waiting for the drones to go back to base for the night. It’s not that I want to. I just don’t have any real choice.

“Barbara,” I whisper.

She woke up with a sigh. “You sure?”

“No way around it. I need to get more acorns and black walnuts. I’m also going to try and get the last of the persimmons before whatever is eating them gets them all. And as much chickweed as I can before the frost takes it all.”

“Let the sunchokes and burdock wait. Please. Burt and I will help with those.”

“Maybe … maybe I will. If I get enough of the rest.”

“Whether you get ‘enough’ of the rest or not. You’re going to get crippled up by being out in this cold too much. It’s a damp one tonight.”

Barbara was the only one that has never been too sensitive to tell me the truth and call it what it is. But I already knew it. I was going to be out of my “little blue pills” soon, a couple of weeks at most. There’s liniment and a few other things that I’m gonna try but I already know based on last year, they’ll only do so much. I’m not afraid of hurting, I’m afraid of what hurting might make me crave if it gets bad. I dreamed of it the other night, the relief it would have brought me. The night that Donnelly and I ran into one another. The night he finally got around to coming and telling Barbara and I what he knew.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“You blockheaded Hartford male!” Barbara growled, just about ready to pitch a pot at his head.

Don’t get mad at me, “I thought one of the others would have told you.”

“And which one of you testosterone poisoned peabrains would that be?! Not like we’ve seen any of the others except for Tommy and Davis and apparently the rest of you aren’t talking to them unless it is to order them around!”

“What?! Did they say that?! They better not have.”

“No. But it isn’t hard to read between the lines of what the uncles have let out and what comes through in the letters from the Aunts and Wives.”

“Just you never mind. We’ve got our reasons.”

“Why? They cavorting with the enemy?”

“No!”

“Are you?”

“Are you crazy?”

It was my turn to step in. “No,” I said quietly. “But it sounds way too similar to when you all came here to check on our propane. Who is leading it this time? And just how bad is it going to turn out when you bunch realize you didn’t mean to start what gets started and how it will doubtless wind up?”

He blanched. “It isn’t like that,” he muttered sullenly. “You just don’t understand.”

“No. I don’t. But you can’t say you haven’t been warned this time. And when this all gets over with, assuming it ever does, none of you better dare wonder why you don’t have anything left of your family.” I looked at him trying not to say something so I said it for him. “Stop trying so hard to say I don’t know what I’m talking about since I’m not a Hartford.”

Barbara gasped. Not because she didn’t think I should have said it but because of the look on Donnelly’s face, that it had been what he was thinking.

That’s when I let a suspicion out that I’d just started to wonder after putting two and two together.

“And do me a favor, tell Bud and Jamison that if I catch them on this land again, that next time I won’t pass by. Next time maybe I won’t help one of their friends save their boy from poisoning.”

“Them bastards ain’t none of ours.” Then he stopped, realizing what he’d just admitted to. Even in the dark I could see how he paled.

I told him, “Don’t worry. This will stay between us … up until the point you put the rest of your family in danger, up until you put those I consider my family in danger. So however you figure to do it, you better change Bud’s mind about coming here to do whatever he’s thinking about. And for your information, if I find out Bud was a part of what brought the Investigators and Harvesters up here, there isn’t going to be a rock on this ridge he’ll be able to hide behind or under.”

“Big words. Gonna get your friend of the Chief Investigator to do something about it?”

“Idiot. We aren’t friends with him, or any of his minions. He’s keeping our husbands away. For what purpose I haven’t figured out yet. At least not all of it. Had I been given the information that it wasn’t the same way for the rest of the families up here on the ridge I might have gotten suspicious sooner. It isn’t like I’ve been traveling all over like some of you have. If I have to guess and I’ll give this away for free, probably because he’s taking a cut of what comes off this farm that he isn’t supposed to be taking. All in the name of inspections and testing and all that other. I’ve already mentioned it to Uncle Mark and he’s asking around at other places as quietly as he can. He’s taking that risk because apparently none of you all have the brains to do it as you’re too busy playing whatever game Bud is playing.”

That’s when Barbara remarked snidely, “Oh he’s playing them all right. Just like he’s always been able to. And he’ll leave them with the mess he makes just like he always has too. Now stop wasting our time proving what idiots you boys are turning out to be yet again. Tell us about our husbands.” You could hear the ‘or else’ in her tone.


~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I set the five-gallon bucket of acorns on the porch and then turned to pick up bushel basket of black walnuts to do the same and I could feel myself falling. I didn’t make it all the way to the ground though. Something caught me.

When I figured out what it was I was fit to be tied. “Davis! Are you crazy?” I hissed. “What are you doing out here?!”

“Delivering a letter from Dad.”

“And I’ve got a letter from Jeannie and Linda.” Before I could express my outrage at Benedict being just as nuts as Davis he added, “And these boxes.”

“What boxes?” I asked suspiciously.

“From that crazy doctor lady. There’s a letter from her too.”

Trying to hold it together after realizing he must be Dr. Carruthers I said, “Thank you. Just put them on the porch please. I don’t want to hold you up.”

“Now just a …”

Then someone barreled into Beneditc, trying to push him back. “We don’t need you. Go away!”

Wanting to pull my hair out I asked, “Has everyone with Hartford blood in their veins gone crazy? Burt Penny, get in that house before you catch your death. You haven’t even got a hat on your head.”

“We don’t need them. Come inside Aunt Kay-Lee. Come on. We haven’t needed ‘em to now. We don’t …”

I heard the screen door and Barbara say, “Sorry Kay-Lee. He thought they were them hobgoblins you’ve sensed and went out the other door to protect you.”

I stopped, gathered my frayed nerves and said, “Burt, I appreciate it but you know Davis would mess himself before he’d hurt a female. And Benedict might be infected with some kind of crazy, but he’s about the same as Davis in that respect.”

“Fine. Davis ain’t bad but what’s he doing here? He ain’t been here at all, not even when Uncle Sawyer was kidnapped by them people that make him and Huely stay away so long.”

I could see him working himself up and I put my arm around him and whispered to him, “I’ll try and find out, just do me a favor and get Barbara back inside and make sure her and Jolene stay warm by the fire.”

“You sure? I can keep an eye.”

I brushed the hair off his forehead, noting the hair cut I’d tried to give him needed doing again and said, “I’m sure. Get some rest. I’m gonna need some help tomorrow. Found a bumper crop of walnuts the tree rats haven’t gotten into yet.”

“For real,” he asked me, surprised.

“For real. Not make work. I promise.”

He threw another suspicious look at Benedict and a leery one at Davis before following Barbara back inside. She looked at me and then wiped her hands on her apron. That was her way of asking if I was armed. She, rather than Sawyer, has been the one to teach me about guns. I nodded and then she nodded back letting me know that she was going along for Burt’s sake but that she’d still be keeping an eye out.

I turned back to Sawyer’s cousins and then waited them out.

Benedict looked concerned. “She’s really showing.”

“No kidding. Or don’t you remember the shape Jeannie was in at this stage?”

Benedict looked at Davis who gave him an I-told-you-so look. “You gathering walnuts? Where’s your food, the commodities and stuff you get.”

I sighed. “You’re looking at what we have. And the kids and Barbara haven’t gotten their commodity box since last month.”

“Commodity box. Box.”

I looked at Davis and silently asked what Benedict’s problem was. He answered and said, “All the pregnant females are supposed to get a box a week and the kids the same.”

I snorted. “Yeah, well I can’t go to town to get them if that’s the way it is. We have to wait on the inspectors to bring theirs.”

“You … you don’t get one?” Benedict asked.

“No. Why would I? Now unless you are bringing word of Sawyer or Huely, just go home. It isn’t a brilliant idea for you to be on the roads at night with the curfew and all.”

“You’re out.”

I rolled my eyes whether Benedict could see it or not. “I’m not leaving my land and I’m not going any further than I can manage.”

“But …”

Davis gave his cousin a disgusted look. “I told you Bud had to be lying. I told you Jamison wasn’t this time when he started to refuse to back up some of the things that were being said. Sawyer had it right all along. Y’all have rocks for brains. And pea gravel at that.” He turned to me apologetically. “I’m sorry Kay-Lee. There hasn’t been more news. Things are kinda crazy at home. Cindy’s father found out Bud had recruited Clay and things ain’t going to well over it. Hopefully Dad’s letter will explain it better than I have time to. And next time you see Tommy, don’t mess with him over things. Linda’s mom came to live in the old house out beside them and … and things are just stressful. Her mom cries and cries … ‘cause she’s relieved and feeling guilty for it. We’ve found out things are worse in town than we knew and … it’s just bad.”

“Bad as in we need to watch out for people coming up this way?”

Benedict finally pulled himself together and said, “Doubtful. At least not right now. Couple of the closest bridges to town have been damaged to the point they are too dangerous to do more than walk across at your own risk due to the military putting too much weight on them and collapsing a couple of supports. The one county and one state bridge that still stand are under military guard and not even the inspectors can cross without their say so. Roads aren’t much better and the National Guard is running patrols several times a day using the little bit of fuel the town has brought in.”

“And you know this how?”

Davis was the one that answered by saying, “Just read Dad’s letter. And tell Burt good job. Sawyer … Sawyer will be proud of him.”

That display of maturity by Davis made me as conflabergasted as my earlier memories had. I had the three letters in my hands and the boxes on the porch when I heard a noise behind me. “I’ll bring them in Aunt Kay-Lee. Barbara is asleep. She was rocking Jolene. I put Jolene in the cradle, but Barbara didn’t wake up. She’s okay though ‘cause she is making those little snores she makes when she puffs out air.”

“You know one of these days she’s gonna swat you before you can move.”

He grinned and said, “She’ll miss on purpose.”

I snorted and shook my head. “You try and get some rest. Oh wait, I need to check the drying trays.”

“Barbara did. She turned everything over.”

“Don’t let her lift anything heavy. I’ve got a couple more runs to make. If Barbara wakes up just tell her I’ll get this stuff in the morning and that there wasn’t any trouble with the boys.”

He tried not to laugh.

“What?”

“You called ‘em boys.”

I rolled my eyes. “Git. And make sure the door you went out is locked.”

I didn’t leave the yard until I saw him drag in the last of the walnut baskets and I heard the bar slide across the door. Not that I was looking forward to it but I put some more empty baskets on the sheet metal sled and started pulling it out into the dark and tried not to let the memories swamp me.
 
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